Quote · The Louis Theroux Podcast
S7 EP8: Yorgos Lanthimos discusses working with Emma Stone, suffering for his art, and directing a Bourne movie
Where this was said
Control, Meaning, and Letting Go: The Philosophy of Filmmaking
At 45:54 · chapter starts 44:00
The conversation broadens into a meditation on what filmmaking — and documentary-making — actually is as a practice. Lanthimos articulates the core paradox: you make thousands of decisions in the belief you are controlling the outcome, but the finished work is then released into a world of radically different people who will process it through entirely different lenses of experience, humour, culture, and personal history. The only honest response to this is to let go. Louis draws a direct parallel to his documentary work, where he frames his approach in terms of holding tensions — between empathy for troubling subjects and moral accountability — rather than resolving them into neat conclusions. Both men identify this productive irresolution as the thing that makes the work valuable.
